Monday, December 16, 2024
BassGuitar Tips & Hacks

Setting Up Your Amp To Use With Drive Pedals


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In this episode, Daniel and Mick attempt to throw some light on how to think about setting your amp up for different drive pedals.

Bottom line, the gain and EQ structure of your amp has a huge influence on how your drive pedals sound, feel and react.

The guys begin with a late-1970s Fender Twin with EV speakers and a Mallard 18-watt Marshall clone through Greenbacks.
They use a Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive and Electro-Harmonix Nano Big Muff Pi into both amps, to demonstrate the extent of just how different your pedals can sound, depending on which kind of amp you use – the difference is remarkable!

They then move on to an amplifier that sits between the classic Marshall and Fender schools in terms of gain and EQ structure, the Hamstead Artist 20, to explain how you might think about setting up your amp and drive pedal to get the sound and feel you desire.

There’s a little bit of discussion on delay and reverb, but this is predominantly about drive and distortion.

Daniel is playing is Fender Custom Shop ’63 Telecaster; Mick is playing his Fender American Vintage ’62 Stratocaster.

Switching is handled effortlessly as ever by TheGigRig G2.

As ever, there are no answers – we’re just trying to help you ask better questions in pursuit of your ideal sound!

For more on TheGigRig, see www.thegigrig.com

#Setting #Amp #Drive #Pedals

Originally posted by UCfms3m2s7MsFs53dVmiw0zw at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdKjhXWpjq8

31 thoughts on “Setting Up Your Amp To Use With Drive Pedals

  • This video is 9 years old…so I'm not sure if there's a newer video I can watch to help with this same concept but I run through a amp sim that lives on my pedal board now as i primarily play at my church and just have the amp sim last in the signal chain into a DI box. No actual amp…The amp sim is a tonex so it can do multiple amp sims, principal should still work the same though yes? or are amp sims different in any way?

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  • Another vid where we want a simple answer made technical… We have a pedal board and all we need to know when plugged in the amp what the dail setting on the amp we need .. simple

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  • With the middle control on the twin reverb, can’t you compensate for some of that scooped mid tone by turning the mids up higher? I’m assuming in this example the mids were drawn back quite a bit?

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  • Lads that was a brilliant explanation about amps as well as overdrives. I pushed the mids beyond where I normally would and got the best sound I've ever had out of my amp. All these years!!

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  • The moral of the story kids, is know (really learn and know) each and every piece of your gear/rig and recognize each piece for what it is!
    "The right tool for the job!" is more than half the battle to any job in any industry!
    And for fahk sake learn everything there is to know about gain staging!
    When you know these things, you will have more confidence and life will be so much easier because you will know your options before you start!
    You'll know exactly what to bring for any particular gig your doing, without having to bring everything thing you own and hope you hit the right sound!
    "Know Your Gear!!!!"

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  • In 2023 you can’t buy a used Hamsted head for less than $3,000…!!!
    Maybe when I book my arena tour..?????????????

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  • I learned more in this video than any other. It’s funny how everyone misses the obvious (in hindsight) key: the amp. Just like how so many people get caught up on tone wood, tubes and so on when it’s the speakers and how you mic them that has the largest impact on tone. Thanks guys!

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  • Part of this conversation needs to address plugging into the effects loop return on your amp. If you haven't already tried it, it's like playing an entirely different amp. Your pedals are driving the power amp and bypassing the preamp. Also stacking the fuzz with the overdrive could give you the tone you seek. And it's my opinion that pedals all have the potential to sound great with all amps and all guitars. The question is how long you're willing to work the setup to milk the sound you seek out of your gear.

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  • I know this is an old video now but am searching through the back catalogue whilst content is thin on the ground during lockdown – Oh my lord did it make me laugh after Dan said about "giving the backend a bit more love", only for Mick to then say "while you play with the Big Muff" that he’d fiddle with the amp; and in my head I said, ‘what to give the back end a bit more love?’ Yes I know I should be ashamed of myself for being so childish, but just couldn’t help myself! Great stuff guys – This gives me an idea for some more content; you should do some outtakes from old episodes "It’ll be Alright on the Night" style (am showing my age there!) or just some favourite bits from the past. Am sure you can have a bit of a laugh at your younger selves ????

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  • Just revisiting this video. It’s maybe even more awesome to me now than the first time I watched it. Now, I’m really wanting to hear stereo with the Marshall + Big Muff on one side and the Twin + SD on the other side!

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  • I play mostly funk and soul music. So I play a fender twin with the master at 10 and gain at around 3, clean, clean and then when I turn my guitar volume from 8 to 10… also clean, but with great cut and tone for single note lines. So the way I get my dirt is by having a clean boost, Fuzz, low gain drive and a medium gain drive on my board. Many options this way. I've found that I get a good fuzz tone if I run the fuzz into my low gain drive

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  • Well the big muff into the twin doesn't sound right, but then the tone control is set to full treble …

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  • Finally, the video I spent the past year searching for. I’ve wasted good money buying great pedals and couldn’t figure out why they sounded so shite ????‍♂️

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  • Of course, I watched this one the day it came out. But all this time later, one thing that is really interesting about that Muff into the Fender: Gilmore not only used Hiwatts famously, but also spend most of the 80's into the early parts of Delicate Sound of Thunder (Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour) with big, clean Fender heads (he also had a Mark IV and eventually a Mesa Boogie Studio Preamp – kind of a Mark III in a rack mount sans power stage. He basically used these as drive "pedals") – and used Muff's, Ibanez TS's, Chandler Tube Drivers, etc. Seems impossible, but sounded killer – and nothing like that Muff into that Fender. He did have at least 3 Boss Eq's he could put in and out for all kinds of things. Very complex, of course, with tube buffers all throughout his Pete Cornish rig. No answers or better questions here, just Wow. Go figure.

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  • In 78', I had a Princeton Reverb. And no pedals! What I would have done for dirt and overdrive pedals. Must be stacked, with low gains dialed in, on clean amps! Shoot, you stack or boost your dirt channel.

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  • one of your best videos, a lot of useful great information. The least that I can say is thank you.

    Reply

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